Due to Maryam’s* low level of English, she found it hard to access local services, and to find a local school for her children. Sally* helped by phoning the City Council and local schools so that Maryam’s children could access education in the UK. Sally has accompanied Maryam to Women’s Aid, to the dentist and to enrol on a college course to learn English. Through the experience Sally learnt how difficult it is for an asylum seeker to adapt to a new country, especially without a strong understanding of the language.
Both Sally and Maryam learnt about cultural differences between the UK and Ethiopia. One particular moment Sally recalled was seeing Maryam’s surprise when her college application form had more than two gender options which was something she had never encountered before. Sally described how Maryam had shared many life lessons with her including the importance of smiling despite adversity, and how smiling had helped her to keep her out of trouble when she was homeless. Sally expressed that she found the experience very rewarding and had learnt a lot from it. The two women have now formed a great befriending relationship and continue to enjoy learning from each other’s cultures and meeting together.
Within this befriending relationship, we can see that all Restore’s key aimed-for outcomes of befriending have been met. This is evidenced from our spidergram tool which shows improvement in all four of our measured outcomes:
The first is friendship and building a relationship with someone in Birmingham. Maryam reported that she has built a great friendship with Sally and described her as kind and helpful.
Secondly, Maryam reported that improved English had been a key area of improvement. Maryam has had the opportunity to practice her English and this helped her develop confidence in speaking the language. At her first contact with Restore, Maryam rated her confidence with speaking English as a 2 out of 5, but now reports 5 out of 5. This demonstrates the importance of informal English practice in enabling someone to achieve a level of confidence necessary for interacting with the local community and accessing services.
Thirdly, Maryam reported an improvement in her health from 1 to 5. She had suffered from poor mental health, but Sally has helped her to access professional support from Women’s Aid, as well as support with her physical health via a dentist. Previously, Maryam was unaware of the support she could receive from Women’s Aid and could have struggled to access this without the support of a befriender.
Finally, Maryam has developed a greater understanding of UK culture and has had the opportunity to learn from her befriendee. Sally reported that they enjoy conversations about differences between their cultures, and Sally has found this to be one of the most valuable aspects of the befriending match.
* names have been changed
to protect refugee rights
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